The Family Affluence Scale (FAS) is a scale developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) school-age children’s health behavior research team. It is designed to assess the material wealth levels of families with school-age children through a series of easy-to-answer questions. The FAS scale is a quantitative assessment tool used to infer a family’s material affluence.
The FAS scale is based on a set of questions covering a number of factors related to family affluence. These questions include the following:
- Car ownership: Does the household own a car?
- Computer ownership: Does the household own a PC or laptop?
- Shared bedroom: Does the child share a bedroom with other family members?
- Vacation Travel: Can the family afford at least one vacation trip per year?
Each question is assigned a specific score based on the student’s response. Typically, if the answer is yes, 1 point is given; if the answer is no, 0 points are given. By calculating a student’s total score, their family affluence can be divided into the following three categories:
- Low FAS (score = 0–2): A lower score indicates that the family is less materially wealthy.
- Moderate FAS (score = 3–5): A moderate score indicates that the family’s material affluence is average.
- High FAS (score = 6–9): A higher score indicates a higher degree of material wealth in the family.
Compared with asking adolescents about their parents’ occupation and family income, the FAS scale provides a more objective and reliable assessment method. It measures a family’s level of material wealth through specific questions rather than relying on subjective personal statements or memories. Therefore, the FAS scale is widely used in research, especially in relation to health behaviors and socioeconomic status of school-age children and adolescents.
The latest version of the FAS scale is the FAS second version (FAS II-4), which is a further improvement of the FAS scale. FAS II-4 adds a question about whether family members have their own bedrooms to the original four questions. This question is thought to more accurately reflect household affluence. The use of the FAS II-4 scale is widely recognized and it has proven to be an effective tool for assessing the level of material wealth in children and adolescents and its association with health behaviors, mental health, academic performance, and other factors. In research, FAS II-4 is also commonly used to describe and compare the family wealth levels of students from different regions, different ages, different ethnicities, and different genders. At the same time, it is also widely used to formulate and evaluate social public policies and interventions to reduce economic poverty and inequality.
If you are interested in understanding how materially affluent your family is, we encourage you to take a free test of the Family Affluence Scale (FAS). The test assesses your family’s level of material wealth with a few simple questions and categorizes your score as a low, moderate, or high FAS level. This can help you better understand your family’s financial situation and provide an objective metric to compare and understand. Please click the link below to start testing. We encourage you to share your test results to promote discussion about household wealth and social inequality.
